Does rinsing kimchi affect the probiotic content?

The Asian market sells homemade kimchi and I bought a large glass jar of it. I ate some today and thought it tasted too strong/spicy. I also started worrying about whether they put MSG or too much sugar in it. I ended up rinsing it and at the end of it, you could barely tell it was kimchi because there wasn't a trace of red. I actually liked the taste a lot better. It was much milder, but still had that sour twist that I like.

I guess my question is whether there is a lot of the good probiotics that I washed away from rinsing it. Are the benefits of the probiotics mostly in the cabbage? Or is most of it in the juice?

Of course! My impression is that if you're getting authentic kimchi, they're using fruit. If your Asian market has people mixing it on site with rubber gloves and goggles on, it's probably pretty authentic :)

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Answers

My MIL is Korean and makes kimchi from scratch and never uses sugar or MSG in it. She will leave the fish sauce out if I tell her to, but I'm fine either way. Instead of sugar, she uses Korean pears or apples. There's enough salt used in the recipe to draw the water out of the cabbage that she doesn't need to use the MSG for kimchi, though will use it for other Korean recipes.

Of course! My impression is that if you're getting authentic kimchi, they're using fruit. If your Asian market has people mixing it on site with rubber gloves and goggles on, it's probably pretty authentic :)

I make my own. It is SO EASY!!! I do not add fish sauce (I add a little more salt instead of it) and I use fresh pepper, not flakes. I add apple, not sugar. My kimchi is much better than real Korean, because I make it the way Koreans made it 200 years ago (I keep it in a clay jar and mix it by hand, no rubber gloves).